Nyko 360 Charge Base

When I was at E3 back in July, I had a chance to get an early review of the new 360 Charge Base that is manufactured by NyKo. While I was able to play around with it, get a feel for how well it was made, and determine how good it was in the span of roughly twenty minutes, I wanted to actually be able to use it in my own home. After all, you can only do so much with a peripheral without actually having access to a console to really see how the unit works. Luckily, I have been able to get my hands on a unit of my own and really go in depth on it.

The unit itself is different from NyKo’s previous designs, such as the Charge Station, which you actually have to remove the battery from the controller and lock it into place. While that version worked well, NyKo realized that eliminating the need to unplug the battery is something that consumers would appreciate in order to cut down on time. The Charge Base does just that by providing batteries that have connectors in order to simply lock the controller into place on the charging station itself.

The charging base itself is a little longer than two 360 controllers next to each other, roughly about a foot long. The slots are angled to allow you to easily dock the controllers into place, providing support for the controllers while the batteries recharge. On the front of the unit are two lights, laid out horizontally. When a controller is charging, the light it corresponds to will light up red. It will stay that way until it is fully charged, changing the light to green for a short period of time before actually shutting off completely to conserve power. Charging time, I’ve found, is never longer than thirty minutes, although this varies depending on how long your gaming session is.

The replacement batteries that are provided in the charge station, as previously stated, have three connectors on it in order to lock into place on the base itself. The batteries can hold a charge of up to 25 hours, providing ample power for any long session of gaming. A little downside, however, is the fact that the batteries sometimes don’t fit in properly without a little force. While the first-party Microsoft batteries slide in easily, I did find that the NyKo battery has a slightly different design and, thus, it can be a little difficult to get the battery to lock into place on the back of the controller. Granted, once it’s in there the first time, it seems to get easier to remove the battery and put it back into the controller. This is a minor con, but it is a little annoying.

All in all, I like what the Charge Base has to offer. It retails for around $34.99 and will provide you with a very solid choice when it comes to recharging more than one controller. This is a unit worth picking up if you are looking for a better option than your usual choices.

The 360 Charge Base is well designed and should last you for quite some time. The batteries will last you for plenty of charges and the base itself doesn't take up that much space. With the price hanging around $35 MSRP, if you were looking at getting a Play and Charge kit, consider going with this instead, especially if you use more than one controller. You'll save a little money and get a well-designed charging kit that doesn't require cables.

Rating: 9.1 Excellent

* The product in this article was sent to us by the developer/company for review.

About Author

I've been writing about games and entertainment since 2006 after starting out at Xbox Ohio. Since then, I have made the jump to Gaming Nexus and have enjoyed my time here. I am an avid gamer that has a solid old school game collection that includes the likes of Final Fantasy games, Earthbound, Gitaroo-Man, MvC2, and a whole slew of others. I have a primary focus on Xbox/PC games and PC peripherals and accessories. If you ever want to game against me, you can look me up on XBL with the gamertag GN Punk. View Profile